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Ukraine Series: Putin’s War and Personalist Authoritarianism | Science of Politics Apr 04, 2022

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows how the incentives and views of dangerous leaders drive world events. The efficacy of the international community’s response depends on how regimes like Russia’s work. Erica Frantz finds that personalist regimes like Russia are more likely to initiate conflicts and suffer from misperceptions in a close inner circle. Putin’s actions follow authoritarian patterns elsewhere. This conversational edition features research and commentary on the war, the sanctions, the behavior of other regimes like China, the global implications of the rise in personalist authoritarianism, and the direction of research on harder-to-observe countries.

Guest: Erica Frantz, Michigan State University

Studies: How Dictatorships Work, Authoritarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know

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Ukraine Series: Russia and Ukraine - How we got here | Democracy Works Mar 30, 2022

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Was the war in Ukraine inevitable? What is Vladimir Putin trying to achieve? What does the conflict say about Ukraine as a democracy? Those are just a few of the questions Michael Berkman explores this week with Donna Bahry, professor emerita of political science at Penn State and an expert in Soviet and post-Soviet politics and democratization.

Donna has studied Russia and the Soviet Union for decades and traveled to the country dozes of time from late Gorbachev era through 2018. She also talks about the challenges of doing scholarly work in the region and how that task will become even more difficult in the wake of the current crisis.

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Ukraine Series: Revisiting Pipeline Protests, A Sacred Family Heirloom, and Discrimination During War | Our Body Politic Mar 28, 2022

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This week on Our Body Politic, Farai looks back on the 2016-2017 Dakota Access Pipeline protests with investigative journalist Jenni Monet to discuss activism among indegeonous peoples in America and across the globe. Farai also talks with MacArthur Grant Award winner, Harvard professor and author Tiya Miles about one family heirloom from the enslavement period that remarkably stood the test of time. Then in our weekly segment "Sippin' the Political Tea" Farai is joined by Christina Greer, political scientist and Associate Professor at Fordham University and Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon, a Ph.D. student in History at the University of Pennsylvania, as they examine the discrimination and other barriers international students and also non-white Ukrainanians are facing in result of Putin's invasion.

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Featuring: Democracy Paradox's Patreon Mar 25, 2022

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This week we bring you an episode from Democracy Paradox's Patreon. You can subscribe for more content like this at https://www.patreon.com/demparadox

Featured guest: Liz Joyner, CEO of the Village Square

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Ukraine Series: Empathy in the Age of Schadenfreude with the God Squad | Village SquareCast Mar 23, 2022

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As the political landscape has devolved into a Mad Max hellscape of blame and retribution (and sometimes even worse), can we find a way to wrestle up a little empathy for our fellow human, even the ones who we don’t agree with — liberal or conservative; Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Atheist; black, white or brown and everyone in between? Is it possible to find humanity amidst the age of political ruin? We’ll find out.

We’ll be joined by God Squad originals Pastor Betsy Ouellette Zierden of St. George Island United Methodist Church, Father Tim Holeda of St. Thomas More Co-Cathedral, and Rabbi Jack Romberg, author of "A doorway to Heroism: A decorated German-Jewish Soldier who became an American Hero."

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Ukraine Series: Sarah Repucci from Freedom House with an Update on Freedom in the World | Democracy Paradox Mar 21, 2022

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A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com or a short review of Freedom in the World 2022: The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule here.
Sarah Repucci is the Vice President of Research and Analysis at Freedom House. She coauthored (along with Amy Slipowitz) Freedom in the World 2022: The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule.
Key Highlights

Global freedom has declined for 16 consecutive years
How Russia's invasion of Ukraine is part of a broader expansion of authoritarianism
Myanmar and other countries with major declines in freedom
Bright spots like Ecuador and Peru
How we can support democracy in the world

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Freedom in the World 2022: The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule by Sarah Repucci and Amy Slipowitz

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Featuring: The Purple Principle Mar 18, 2022

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This week we bring you an episode from The Purple Principle podcast.

The Purple Principle kicks off its extended Season Three series on state level polarization with a mini-series on the great state of Texas. And who better to discuss Texas politics than the co-hosts of the artfully named podcast, Y’all-itics: Jason Wheeler (Senior News Reporter) and Jason Whitely (News Anchor) of the ABC Dallas affiliate, WFAA.

Both Jasons concur that polarization has been eating away at that powerful Texas identity in recent times. “People do like to maintain that they have that independent streak,” says Wheeler, pointing to both Texas Republicans and Democrats. “And I think that one of the things you have in common is that you like to think that you're perhaps more of an independent thinker than you are.”

What factors are contributing to erosion of that common Texas identity? One party rule, without real need for bipartisanship, certainly plays a role. And gerrymandering has helped maintain Republican domination of Texas politics over the past two decades. Therefore, Republican office holders often look over their right shoulders at primary battles rather than ahead to general elections and swing voters.

The most recent Texas legislative session put forth a number of bills catering to that small subset of Republican primary loyalists, including restricted abortion and voting access, yet unrestricted open carry of firearms. Will this “red meat” legislation invoke electoral backlash?

That’s a point of discussion in this episode, along with last year’s major power failure and the continuing movement of California companies and workers into Texas. Tune in for a “Y’all-itical Science” mini-course with the equally articulate, almost equally named hosts of Y’all-itics, Jason Wheeler and Jason Whitely, as The Purple Principle kicks off our extended state polarization series in the vast, varied, and vocal Lone Star State.

Original Texas–themed music this episode by Ryan Adair Rooney.

SHOW NOTES

Our Guests

Jason Whitely: co-host of the podcast Y’all-itics, Senior News Reporter at WFAA in Dallas, Texas. Host of WFAA’s Inside Texas Politics. Jason Whitely’s Twitter

Jason Wheeler: co-host of the podcast Y’all-itics, News Anchor at WFAA, and Editor of WFAA’s Right on the Money. Jason Wheeler’s Twitter

Find the Y’all-itics podcast on WFAA.com, Apple Podcasts

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Twitter: @purpleprincipl

Facebook: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast

Instagram: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast

Our website: https://bit.ly/2ZCpFaQ

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Ukraine Series: Defending democracy at home and abroad | Democracy Works Mar 16, 2022

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Robert Kagan is a foreign policy expert who turned his focus to the United States last fall in a Washington Post column titled "Our Constitutional Crisis Is Already Here" that became one of the Post's most-read pieces of 2021. We're lucky to have Kagan with us this week to discuss the ongoing crises of democracy at home and abroad as Russia's war on Ukraine continues to unfold.

Kagan has argued that there was nothing inevitable about the relatively peaceful liberal democratic order that followed World War II, and that there is nothing inevitable about the perseverance of American democracy. In fact, he says that because so many reject the 2020 presidential election, we are already in a constitutional crisis, and it will take deliberate actions by the public and members of both political parties to get us out. For too many politicians, a recognition of our condition, let alone a commitment to those actions, appears to be a long way off.

Kagan is the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute and a member of the Foreign Affairs Policy Board in the U.S. State Department. He is the author of The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World and The New York Times bestseller, The World America Made.

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Kagan's piece on constitutional crisis

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Ukraine Series: Understanding Ukraine. Unity, Defiance, Resistance: Marci Shore | How Do We Fix It? Mar 14, 2022

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The war in Ukraine and the global response to Russia's invasion are dominating the news. But missing in much of the coverage is a sense of the country and its people. In this historic moment, we hear a riveting account of the country's recent political awakening and why Ukrainians are prepared to resist and fight.

In the past century, Ukraine suffered massively during two world wars, Nazi occupation, famine, and the Chernobyl disaster. Eight years ago, during the "Revolution of Dignity", Ukranians stood up against corruption, brutality, and Russian dominance. A new democracy and civic bond were formed. The country profoundly changed.

"Ukranians are fighting for all of us," says our guest, Yale University historian Marci Shore, the author of “The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution.” She is a scholar of Eastern Europe in the post-Soviet era.

"I'm terrified for my friends," Marci tells us. "The Ukrainians will not give up... I'm desperately hopeful that as difficult as the odds are, they are going to prevail."

Recommendations for further reading about the war and today's Ukraine: Yarolav Trofimo, the Wall Street Journal’s Chief foreign correspondent, now in Kiev. Phil Stewart of Reuters and his newsfeed on Twitter, coverage from CNN's Clarissa Ward, Anderson Cooper, and Alex Marquardt in Ukraine. Background and perspective in The Economist.

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Ukraine Series: War Come to Ukraine | Democracy in Danger Mar 09, 2022

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Jane Lytvynenko hasn’t slept much in two weeks. From her home in Toronto, she is watching Russian troops invade and bombard her native Ukraine, threatening loved ones and friends. And it’s rattling her nerves. But through all that, Lytvynenko, a freelance journalist, remains hopeful. Siva speaks with her about the failures of world leaders to stand up to Vladimir Putin. Plus, we revisit a couple of interviews from last year that help add context to the conflict.